Italian ambassador’s New Delhi residence experiences a unique light show

Italian lighting brand iGuzzini and six Indian lighting designers create a dazzling display of installations

The idea behind the collaboration was to celebrate light as art and its impact on the world around it

The Delhi design world was dazzled recently by ‘Light First,’ a collaboration between iGuzzini, a renowned lighting brand from Italy, and six leading Indian designers—Harmeet Singh Issar, Kanchan Puri, Manav Bhargava, Vibhor Sogani, Sarvdeep Basur, and Linus and Lyle Lopez. The result was a series of installations that lit up the official residence of Lorenzo Angeloni, the Italian ambassador to India, on November 30. The idea behind the collaboration was to celebrate light as art and its impact on the world around it.

The light installation, Yours and Mine

Study in Light

The meticulously crafted installations were a study in light and expressed its different characteristics—its intensity, depth and shadows. Yours and Mine, the installation by lighting designers, Manav Bhargava and Bilal Khan (of Mandala, a Delhi- based design studio) was an exploratory piece on the proprietorship of light. The seed of the idea was planted two years ago when a journalist posed a question to Bhargava: ‘What does light mean to you?’ The question spawned myriad responses and debates with his team, which culminated in the idea of Yours and Mine. “The answers were many but none an end in itself. Later, the thought branched out to the anecdote between Alexander [the Great] and [Greek philosopher] Diogenes,” says Bhargava, about the inspiration behind the installation.

Gift of Nature

According to legend, Alexander once visited Diogenes while he was basking in the sun and asked if he could do anything for him. Shadowed by the king, Diogenes asked him to stand out of his light. “Light here in its figurative sense represents values like truth and honesty, and in the literal sense, a precious gift of nature—all of which Diogenes held dear. We further explored the idea of personalisation of light—for intellectual, emotional, functional, spiritual and material needs and also in its spatial manifestation by using LEDs, projected light and neon,” elaborates Bhargava further.

Other artworks had a more playful interpretation of the theme. For instance, Flock by Vibhor Sogani was a quirky sculptural composition of a flock of birds, which reflected light with their mirrored facets. Four Seasons, on the other hand, by Linus and Lyle Lopez was an interactive light installation designed around the nuances of India’s four seasons. Light, as we know, is both particle and wave—both ethereal and substantial. This six-person international exploration gives it yet another duality—of both bridge and beacon.

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The meticulously crafted installations were a study in light and expressed its different characteristics—its intensity, depth and shadows

The place comprises a series of installations that light up the official residence of Lorenzo Angeloni, the Italian ambassador of India

‘Light First’ is a collaboration between iGuzzini, a renowned lighting brand from Italy, and six leading Indian designers

The idea behind the collaboration was to celebrate light as art and its impact on the world around it